wolit (03/01/83)
I have some friends/relatives on the West coast who have asked my advice about a business they are thinking of starting up, and I thought I'd ask for other people's opinions as well. They are thinking of starting a PROM programming service -- i.e., you send them the pattern you want burned into a (E)PROM (and maybe the chip itself, too), and they program it for you and send it back. Obviously, they'd have to be prepared to accept the patterns in a variety of formats (about a dozen different floppy disk size/format combinations, tape cassettes, 103 or 212 modem protocols, various paper tape styles, etc.). The big question is, is there a market for this kind of service out there? I would guess that there aren't enough hobbyists to support a business of this kind, and that most companies that need this service buy (or rent) their own PROM burners, but business acumen is not my forte (I DIDN'T buy Polaroid as soon as they went public, for example, nor IBM, DEC, etc.). If you reply by mail (I doubt that this is of general enough to warrant clogging the netways), I'd be glad to pass your comments along. Jan Wolitzky, 201 582-2998, ...rabbit!wolit